Excel "pop up" menus opening out of focus

[archerpro101]

Hi Mr. Excel community! I'm having trouble with Excel 365, wherein if I'm using hotkeys to execute actions that open menus (for example, Text to Columns, or Paste Special), the pop-up menus are opening out of focus. The remedy is I then either need to hit Alt+Tab to select the menu, or I need to manually move my cursor to click on the menu to "activate". If I take no action, I cannot continue using the given hotkeys in a sequence I'm trying to execute quickly.

I hope this makes sense. I've scoured the internet and haven't found anything helpful - appreciate any tips!

Best,
Archer

 

[Michael M]

Once the dialog box has been opened, it IS the active window by default.
ALT + D + E will activate Text to columns
When that dialog box appears, you will need to press either ALT + D for delimited, ALT + W for fixed widrh
ALT + N will then take you to the next window......etc, etc.
Have a look in each window and you will see certain letters are underligned...these are the hotkey letters you have to choose from !

 

[archerpro101]

Once the dialog box has been opened, it IS the active window by default.
ALT + D + E will activate Text to columns
When that dialog box appears, you will need to press either ALT + D for delimited, ALT + W for fixed widrh
ALT + N will then take you to the next window......etc, etc.
Have a look in each window and you will see certain letters are underligned...these are the hotkey letters you have to choose from !

Hi Michael, thanks for your note. What I'm describing is that when the dialog box opens, that the hotkeys are no longer active and the dialog box itself is grayed out, so I need to tab into it, or click on the dialog box to "reactivate" it so I can continue using the hotkeys. This is a more recent issue and Excel has never behaved like this before. I'm at a loss of what to do here

Any other thoughts?

 

[Michael M]

Have you installed any addins recently ??
OR
Had an upgrade ?
Do you have more than one sheet active, ie, multiple sheets tabs selected ?

 

[archerpro101]

Have you installed any addins recently ??
OR
Had an upgrade ?
Do you have more than one sheet active, ie, multiple sheets tabs selected ?

Hi Michael,

No new addins recently, and no upgrades that I'm aware of. When this is happening, only a single sheet is active. The issue persists if I have other workbooks open, so that doesn't seem to be a factor.

Best,
Archer

 

[Michael M]

I can't really advise any further....it sounds like another app or even a macro is taking the focus.
HAve you tried closing ALL other applications and checking for worksheet_change macros in your workbook ??
Other than that I'm afraid I'm at a loss....and hope someone else can jump in to assist !!